


Spin, Hunt, Weave

by Ellicit, forsyte



Series: The A. E. Doyle Library [4]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Faux-Biblical Prose, Fluff, Other, Queer Poly Romance, References to Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, but the weird kind of fluff that comes when you're all monsters, contains one (1) biblically-subtle sex scene, despite the metaphors the web isn't actually involved in this, spiral entities are little bitches who like to hide things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:20:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24301237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellicit/pseuds/Ellicit, https://archiveofourown.org/users/forsyte/pseuds/forsyte
Summary: Excerpts from The Book of the Library-in-Rain, as reconstructed and digitized by Ellis Hirsch and Dante Elsinore.
Relationships: The Labyrinth/The Minotaur/The Librarian
Series: The A. E. Doyle Library [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1722571
Kudos: 4





	Spin, Hunt, Weave

1 now there was in those days, before the Tower rose above and ruled the earth, a spinner of stories who walked the city in search of exhaustion’s scissors, 2 so that they might lay down for just one moment the thread of consciousness, which they found so often tangled. 3 and it happened so that their heart found another, a weaver of words; 4 who sought to form the tales she found herself guardian of into a pattern of whole cloth, and in her passion drew the spinner to her. 5 and the spinner and the weaver together walked the city; 6 the weaver half in [missing] and the spinner half in dreams of dim tunnels of brick and glass.

7 and at last the weaver pulled her spinner with her to find the truth of one such thread; and when the two had found it they turned away, 8 but the thread had wrapped around their ankles, and they would not have escaped had the spinner not found a passageway, long and dark and cool. 

9 hold my hand, said the weaver.  
10 i will, said the spinner, 11 but do not open your [unclear], or i may lose you.  
12 i will not, said the weaver, thinking she told the truth; 13 but her [unclear; some versions read “god”, others “patron”] was jealous, and when the spinner stumbled and fell away, she could not bear to do aught else but look for them; 14 and opening her eyes knew herself awake, and her spinner left behind.

15 there was also in those days a lover who wished for the attention and efforts of those around them, one who was cold and distant; 16 and so it came to pass that they turned to one who was a flame for comfort. 17 the flame brought them warmth, but also pain; 18 and in the end the pain outweighed the warmth, and so the lover fled.  
19 but the flame would not let them go so easily, and the attention they had once craved followed them 20 til they were in agony, and they desired naught but to escape it; 21 and they ran 22 and they ran 23 and they ran, 24 ‘til they were tired of running from and turned and found themself behind the other. 25 and so in the end the weakness and desire for pursuit turned inwards and became a desire to pursue, 26 to stalk in the dark and in the pounding drums alike and prove to all who might see the trail of broken hearts behind them that the thing the lover had become had no need to be afraid.

27 thus the huntress also walked the city, and in its wanderings found the weaver; 28 and the weaver’s gaze could not help but land favorably on her artemisian visitor; 29 but she had sworn to concern herself only with the tapestry of the love she had lost, and so [missing]

40 therefore there was in time a stumbling [unclear] 41 who could not be else but prey; who left a trail of heart’s-blood and ink through the weaver’s domain.

[Though a copy containing verses 42-50 has been discovered, only the verse numbers are legible; the text is written in symbols resembling Linear A, and has proved resistant to digitization.]

51 and the quarry entered a place from which there was no escape, only the center, to which all paths though they might twist and turn led; 52 and behind it ran something that was not less of a [incomprehensible; text appears to have been printed over multiple times] for walking on two legs, nor for the weapon it held in what were still hands, for such have never been the boundaries of definition; 53 and when they came to the center the quarry had nowhere to go; 54 and then the paths [unclear; some versions read “ate of it” while others read “built from it”]; 55 and when all was still-seeming the thing that was not less of a monster stood and sensed that it was in the realm of a larger threat; 56 and the threat was curious to see it.  
57 that was not your prey to fell, said the huntress.  
58 all in here are my prey, said the walls.  
59 i am not your prey to fell, said the huntress.  
60 i am not your prey to fell, said the walls.  
61 the huntress did not disagree, nor did it answer at all. 62 and the walls grew restless, or more restless still, as they were already unsleeping; 63 the walls said, you have nowhere to go, 64 and the huntress responded, neither do you.  
65 the walls pressed close, 66 but theirs was not to bury; rather, to disorient and blur the mind, and the huntress felt its hunger ebb and flow with the pulsing of stone against its flesh. 67 the huntress bared its teeth and raked its claws through brick, and smiled to feel the walls shudder and twist; 68 and the half-lights flickered as the walls gasped and caught the huntress’ claws and did not let go.

69 you have made me feel, said the walls, and the huntress knew then that it could not destroy the walls, nor could it bear to leave them unsullied.  
70 i will make you feel, said the walls, and twisted themself into a pleasing shape for the huntress to sink into with teeth and limbs; 71 and the huntress knew then for itself the terror of being enfolded and devoured and known even as it raged and devoured, and gloried in it; until both were spent and the huntress lay softly with its hand around the neck of a statue-that-was-not-a-statue.

72 what are you? asked the huntress.  
73 i am not enough, whispered the walls; 74 i am not what i am, whispered the walls, but a thing like me must know what i am to be what i am not.  
75 what are you? asked the walls.  
76 i am who i am, unwhole and unholy, whispered the huntress; i hunt for no one but myself, whispered the huntress, but their eyes were weary with solitude.  
77 i have been empty for so long, said the walls. you are whole enough for me. stay with me. i could not have taken you if you had not offered.

78 then both remembered the thread of a story the word-weaver had loved, of twisting paths that made a home for a thing with sharp teeth, and knew each other for something more than they had been alone; 79 and remembering the story both remembered the weaver, and together followed the thread to her door. 80 and the huntress gave its name to the weaver as the walls gave theirs. 81 when the weaver saw this she cried, surely these cannot be my loves; surely this is a waking dream come to punish me; but the huntress replied, no, i am merely myself but more, and the walls replied no, i lost you but now i have found you; 82 and i do not fault you for believing i was gone. 83 and all the eyes of the weaver shed tears, and with the last of herself that was not given over to her [as in verse 13, unclear], she bound the thread that her loves had followed home around her wrists, that she might never lose them.

84 and so the huntress stayed in the labyrinth, and did not leave, save at its loves’ bidding and in pursuit; and the labyrinth did not eat of its monster, but gave its loves the home they had always longed for; 85 and their prey became the same stumbling quarry.


End file.
